What is Rance?

Rance is an adult fantasy RPG series started by Alicesoft in 1988. The series focuses on a character named Rance who was designed to be the opposite of the hero characters in traditional Japanese RPGs of the time. Consequently Rance is an extremely selfish, violent, horny asshole, and if he does anything good, it's usually by accident.

The games in the series make up a continuous story, but each is mostly enjoyable on its own as well.

Most of the games are some sort of RPG, but the gameplay in each varies wildly, to the point where most of them are completely different from a gameplay perspective.

The Story So Far...

Rance - The Search for Hikari -

Originally released: August 15th, 1989

In the Kingdom of Leazas, an aristocrat's daughter is kidnapped! Taking on the job of rescuing her, an adventurer named Rance searches the castle town, while his recently purchased slave, Sill, infiltrates the kidnapped girl's school. Also, a mysterious ninja attacks sometimes.

FUN FACTS
-For some reason, having sex with Sill in this game gives Rance the ability to use magic
-The girl on the cover appears nowhere in the game itself

Rance II - The Rebellious Girl -

Originally released: May 15th, 1990

Four girls training in magic in the town of Custom suddenly began a rebellion and sealed the whole city underground. Rance accepts a request to defeat them and goes with Sill to the underground dungeon.

FUN FACTS
-The original release of this game required an abnormally high 12 floppy disks
-The girl on the cover of the first game who wasn't in the game itself does appear in this game, but the girl on the cover of this game does not

Rance III - The Fall of Leazas -

Originally released: November 15th, 1991

The militant nation of Helman's Prince Patton joins hands with the powerful beings known as fiends and invades Leazas, quickly taking over the country. Seeking help to save the imprisoned Princess Lia, Kanami the ninja pays a visit to Rance's house. Rance takes her virginity in exchange for driving Helman out of Leazas!

FUN FACTS
-This is the first game to significantly flesh out the Rance universe, introducing fiends (the main antagonists of the series), different nations, and a decent chunk of the world map
-Sill placed #1 on the Rance 3 popularity poll, even beating Rance

Rance IV - The Legacy of the Sect -

Originally released: December 11th, 1993

Rance and Sill are teleported to the mysterious, floating city of Ylapu. While they search everywhere for a way back to the surface, Leazas and Custom put together a team to bring them back. At the same time, a group of Helmanian soldiers is snooping around Ylapu...

FUN FACTS
-The game was initially developed with scrolling maps in mind, but it couldn't be done due to technical limitations, so the maps had to be significantly shrunk down for the released version.
-Much of this game was created from ideas for a scrapped game called Toushin Toshi Upsilon that was intended to be released for the Sega CD.